Cultural Empowerment
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from Co-op America.Co-op America, an alliance of socially responsible businesses with nearly 50,000 individual and 2,000 business members nationwide, is the best overall resource for cultural empowerment. Their goal is to build a Green economy in America. They offer info on their website, Co-op America's National Green Pages Online, and a hardcopy version of Co-op America's National Green Pages (2000 edition), available for $7.95 postpaid or as part of your $20/year individual membership fee. Your membership fee also includes a subscription to the Co-op America Quarterly Journal.
Buy from the Institute of Noetic Sciences at 415-331-5650.
The Integral Culture Survey: A Study of the Emergence of Transformational Values in America, by Paul Ray. You can purchase the book and/or a short pamphlet The Rise of Integral Culture by calling the Institute of Noetic Sciences book department at 415-331-5650. The Emerging Culture by Paul Ray explains that there are 44 million Americans with Green values (24% of the American adult population). There are also 56 million Traditionalists or Heartlanders (29% of the American adult population) and 88 million Modernists (47% of the American adult population). Only Paul Ray label Greens "Cultural Creatives" and claims that 20 million Greens (11% of the American adult population, 2/3 female, labeled "Core Cultural Creatives" by Paul Ray) are into personal growth as well as social change and ecology, while another 24 million Greens (13% of the adult population, labeled "Greens" by Paul Ray) are primarily concerned with environmental and social issues. You can also read "Cultural Creatives" offer Ideas and Hope by Mac Lawrence.
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World., by Paul Ray. Published in Oct. 2000. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Hippies from A to Z: Their Sex, Drugs, Music and Impact From the Sixties to the Present., by Skip Stone, founder of hippy.com. Click here for a description. Published in Dec. 1999. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Hair (video). You can also buy it from buy.com. Reviewed by Amazon.com. Also reviewed by Reel.com.
Buy from Alternative America.
Alternative America, compiled by Resources. A directory of 12,000+ politically, culturally, educationally, socially, and economically progressive groups and organizations in the United States (with about 1,000 in other countries). Their website offers a complete list of the 12,000+ names only (in a huge 280k file) and nearly 2,000 descriptors/subjects/keywords. They also offer mailing labels for sale.
There are also some additional resources listed at the bottom of this page.
Intentional Communities
The Communities Directory: A Guide to Cooperative Living: Third Edition. Click here for a detailed description. Published in April 2000. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Builders of the Dawn: Community Lifestyles in a Changing World, by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, by Charles Durret, Ellen Hertzman, and Kathryn McCamant. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Circles of Strength: Community Alternatives to Alienation, edited by Helen Forsey, illustrated by Maureen Swann. Click here for a description.
The Best Investment: Land in a Loving Community, by David W. Felder. A good primer on simplifying your life and saving money, starting a community, and establishing a rural intentional community. Published in 1983.
Rebuilding Community in America: Housing for Ecological Living, Personal Empowerment, & the New Extended Family, by David W. Felder. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Is It Utopia Yet? An Insider's View of Twin Oaks Community In Its 26th year, by Kat Kinkade. Click here for a description. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
The Fellowship for Intentional Community can provide more information about intentional communities.
Community Bookshelf has an excellent collection of books for sale on communities and co-operatives.
Conflict Resolution Skills
Mediator's Handbook, by Jennifer E. Beer and Eileen Stief. Click here for a detailed description. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, by Sam Kaner, Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi (contributor), Sara Fisk (contributor), and Duane Berger. Published in 1996. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Buy
from Community Bookshelf.
Building United Judgement: A Handbook for Consensus Decision Making, by the Center for Conflict Resolution. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving in, by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Getting Ready to Negotiate: The Getting to Yes Workbook, by Roger Fisher and Danny Ertel. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
(Note: It appears that someone at Amazon.com mispriced this item in November 2000.)How to Deal With Difficult People (2 audio cassettes), by Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dr. Rick Kirschner. These tapes are informative, entertaining, and provide some very useful information about how to deal with some less-than-easy-to-get-along-with people. You can also buy a book version [5% discount] of their presentation. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Dealing With People You Can't Stand: How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst, by Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dr. Rick Kirschner. This is a book version of their entertaining audio tape How to Deal With Difficult People [5% discount from the correct price]. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
See also friendship and love and peace.
Worker Co-operatives
Co-operative/Credit Union Dictionary and Reference, edited by Jack McLanahan and Connie McLanahan.
Out of print.
We Own It: Starting & Managing Cooperatives & Employee-Owned Ventures, by Peter Honigsberg, Attorney, Bernard Kamoroff, CPA, & Jim Beatty, Coop Accountant.
Putting Democracy to Work: A Practical Guide for Starting and Managing Worker-Owned Businesses, by Frank T. Adams and Gary B. Hansen. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Out of print.
When Workers Decide: Workplace Democracy Takes Root in North America, edited by Len Krimerman and Frank Lindenfeld. In its own words, "When Workers Decide is a potent mix of analyses, testimonies and detailed resources that will help everyone interested in finding viable, community-controlled alternatives to corporate capitalism." Reviewed by Amazon.com.
We Build the Road As We Travel, by Roy Morrison. The story of the Mondragon Co-operatives in Spain, probably the world's most well-known network of co-operatively owned businesses. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Out of print.
Give Us Credit: How the Micro-Lending Revolution is Empowering Women from Bangladesh to Chicago, by Alex Counts. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
The International Co-operative Alliance offers additional information.
Your local food co-op, with healthy food, friendly people, local newsletters, alternative media publications, and good bulletin boards is an excellent resource.
The Rainbow Family or Rainbow Nation is a loose knit tribe of hippies who hold the National Rainbow Gathering the first week in July in a different national forest each year. They have a good website. They also publish an annual Rainbow Guide, which is primarily a list of Rainbow Family members who signed up for the guide this year, and is full of positive countercultural energy (and usually some pictures of the last Rainbow Gathering), and is an excellent countercultural traveling resource guide. One caution: since many people aren't used to camping, if you go to a Rainbow Gathering be sure to read and heed rap 107 and only drink pure drinking water.
People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia, by Michael I. Niman. A book about the Rainbow Family. Click here for a description. Click here for an interview of Michael I. Niman, the author, by John Tarleton. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
New Society Publishers has an excellent collection of books for sale.
Material World: A Global Family Portrait, by Peter Menzel and Charles C. Mann. A richly illustrated visual portrait of global cultural diversity. It illustrates the life of typical families in 30 countries around the world. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
- See also cultural empowerment resources.-